Microscopic examination of body fluids and tissue to determine the cause of disease has turned out to be the cornerstone of diagnosis in pathology. Traditionally, microscopic examination of body fluid samples or biopsy tissue mounted on glass slides has been performed by a pathologist using an optical microscope for the purpose of diagnosis. The Microscope slide would be loaded on such microscopes by hand for analysis and diagnosis. Due to passage of time, and required faster examination, automated microscopy gained momentum wherein the loading of the slides on such microscopes was automated to make the same more efficient. The stringent testing procedures and diagnostic requirements evolved in recent times required shorter processing times of the samples to address the plethora of samples to be tested. This triggered digital pathology. Digital pathology is the process of converting entire glass microscope slides into high resolution, whole-slide digital images that can be viewed, managed, analyzed and interpreted with a computer instead of a microscope using a digital pathology work flow management system.
This has given birth to digital whole slide scanners, which are used in the field of pathology to convert analog data on glass slides to digital images on computers for analysis.
Digital whole slide scanners available in the market use different mechanism for the purpose of holding and transporting slides through the scanner. Multiple options for automated digital scanners exists, a few of them arc PL 200 by Prior Scientific, SF 210 by Nikon, SL 50 by GeniePix, Leica Biosystems, DMetrix, Ludl Electronics, Abbott Laboratories Inc., Pacard Instrument Company, to name a few. Such digital scanners have varying capacity ranging from processing one to hundreds of slides. A typically problem, however, is that scanners having small capacities cannot be scaled to meet the growing demands in terms of efficiency and volumes of the testing that can be handled by the scanner, whether in the digital scanner or otherwise. Various prior arts detailed as follows exists that disclose the ways of improving efficiency exists:
U.S. Pat. No. 6,847,481 discloses an automated slide loader. In accordance with the said disclosure of the patent, slide handler instrument is disclosed that transfers glass microscope slides from a cassette or magazine to a motorized microscope stage, having a slide exchange arm.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,905,300 describes a slide feeder with air bearing conveyor for use with a generic microscope. In accordance with the said disclosure of the patent, the stage is provided with a carriage moving horizontally along a direct path between the stage and the slide magazine.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,706,061 describes a method and apparatus for automating microscopic analysis of a plurality of data-encoded microscope slides. In accordance with the said disclosure of the patent, a slide engager is provided that engages the slide along the two lateral surfaces.
U.S. Patent Application No. 2008/0187464 describes an apparatus for feeding the microscope slides from a storage device to a slide stagy with the help of a sleeve. However there remains a need for a slide scaling mechanism to be used with slide scanners, which is robust, automated, accurate, simple to use, low cost and scalable. The present invention embodies one such concept.